COVER Story THE PARTNER-EVERYWHERE IMPERATIVE: By Jan Twombly, CSAP, Jeff Shuman, CSAP, PhD, and Lorin Coles, CSAP The Transformation Equation We are in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution. Customers are in charge. New competitors and potential partners are ubiquitous. Building the power to partner everywhere is an urgent organizational imperative. It must be championed and owned by the executive suite. Senior management drives it through a coordinated enterprise-wide capability-building program, with accountable leaders for key initiatives and multiple projects in all areas of the business. 16 It must be acknowledged that managing external relationships is part of every senior-level job. And staff at all levels need skills to engage with partners- as well as collaborate effectively internally. STRATEGIC ALLIANCE MAGAZINE | Q1 * 2017 This is not a niche project that gets shunted aside for "more pressing matters." It is a significant organizational change initiative. But not one done in a vacuum. The overarching context is transformation. Digital business transformation. Becoming customer obsessed. Taking advantage of the fourth industrial revolution technologies that are upending the relationship with the customer while reshaping and redefining business processes and business models. None of these imperatives can be done without a next-generation partnering capability (See Figure 1). This is how the challenge of managing relationships is met when partnering is ubiquitous and organizations need the